Monday, October 10, 2011

I Blame My Hair

I remember when I was young and care-free.  I would wake up, work-out, shower, eat breakfast, blow-dry my hair, and all those other things to make myself beautiful.  I loved the mornings.  I didn't like to get up, per se, but I did like the feeling of waking before the birds and completing tedious tasks long before I needed to set out to work or class.  I felt accomplished and I did my hair.  Every day.  No exceptions (ok, unless I didn't wake up early).

Around the time of my third miscarriage, I had grown to hate that hair styling tool meant to blow dry my hair into beautiful locks.  It never did.  Instead, I would labor in front of the mirror getting sweatier by the minute, blowing that darned heat in the direction of the wet mop on my head and willing it to style my hair so I wouldn't have to use the straightener.  Alas, my wavy tresses made that impossible.  And my kids made the task not only tedious but life-threatening as they attempted to touch the socket, grab the hot straightener, and cause all kinds of havoc with their sweet, little hands.

I decided to shower and work out at night.

Once we arrived in MO, and started medical school, things shifted yet again.  With Ben's schedule changing weekly, there are nights he is at home and nights he is gone and no advanced warning as to which it will be.  It fully depends on his homework load and his studying pace.  As my love for mornings dwindled with each pregnancy, I have scorned the thought of getting up before my children.  Surely there would be opportunities to workout and shower at night.  But here we are, 2 months into our routine, and I still don't have a routine.

Did any of you read NPR's article entitled "Prioritizing Health or Hair?"  I am sure the idea in this--that women are choosing their locks over their health--caused quite a few guffaws from educated readers.  Unless they were moms.  I mean, who has time to exercise AND look beautiful?  When I actually find the energy to straighten my hair, do you really think I'm going to ruin it by exercising?  Heck no.

For many of you readers, you must remember me bemoaning the 20 lbs I gained from birth control.  I ditched the evil pill and am now contending with the extra weight.  Clearly I must decide between styling my hair and exercising--it's one or the other folks.

I think I might go back to AM exercising.  My kids don't wake up at night so I really don't have an excuse for limited Z's until I remember that IT'S THE MORNING.  Who wakes up just to sweat in the morning?

So I blame my hair for my extra weight.

Until I remember that I don't do my hair, either.  Drat.

Heather has asked that we just write. So I did. You can too.

22 comments:

  1. Oh how I can relate! This was so relatable and funny and real. Thank you.

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  2. For years upon years, starting in college really, I woke up early to work out. I found it helped me to wake up and after my daughter was born, it was MY time to myself - it was only time I had to myself until bedtime and I wasn't yet wiped out from my day. I found if I waited until later, working out didn't always happen.

    These days, she's in school and I work from home. I have more time to exercise during the day, so I don't do the early morning thing as much. Once you get into the swing of it, it's not so hard. I still wake up early, but I am finally learning to go back to sleep until I have to get her up.

    I don't bother with my hair much. I do style it occasionally, but it has a mind of it's own and will do it's own thing no matter what I do to it. If I have to choose (and I did when I worked in an office), I will always choose exercise. It makes a huge difference in my mental health as well as my waistline. I hate working out, but I love the after effects, so I suck it up.

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  3. I get this. I get the ways that both exercise and looking after our looks can make us feel good about ourselves. And I think that is more important than it might seem.

    Random superficial aside: as a fellow wavy haired girl, I rue the fact that it takes me forever to get my hair straight with a blow dryer and straightening iron. Then I got a dryer like this with the brush attached: http://www.amazon.com/Infiniti-Conair-SD8R-Tourma.... And, voila!, straight-enough hair in about ten minutes. Just sayin'. :)

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  4. Love blaming your hair for the extra weight! Think I will steal this idea. :) Understand the when to excercise dilemman and not wanting to runin a good hair day with sweat. Fun read!
    First time stopping by from Just Write.
    PS LOVE your banner pic!! Sooo cute and funny!!

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  5. Exercise?? What is this exercise thing of which you speak?!

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  6. Back in the day I got tired of my Jewfro making life difficult so I wore a flat top. It made life exceptionally easy. Can't say that many women would consider wearing their hair that way, but it was convenient.

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  7. I hate my hair.. so most of the time it's pulled back into a messy (oftentimes frizzy) bun. It requires too much work to make it pretty every morning. My only "must" in my routine is some makeup so I look at least half-way put together. And, this is pre-children... I have a feeling I'm going to be a mess post-kids.. unless my hair blessedly turns more manageable due to the hormones (it has happened to a few of my curly-haired friends).

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  8. Hilarious! Especially this: "When I actually find the energy to straighten my hair, do you really think I’m going to ruin it by exercising? Heck no." LOL! I totally get it. I blow-dry and straighten my hair every day. I have that wavy, frizzy kind of hair, and I can't believe there was a time when I *didn't* straighten it. But I hate doing it! Especially when I'm already hot! Good luck with the a.m. workouts! I have just re-joined the gym and I'll be going directly after work. Which means that hubby has to pick up both kids AND prepare supper. Love it! :-)

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  9. I am embracing my curl. Put a little product in after a shower and let it do what it will. Then, later on, if it needs a tweak or two, I can squeeze in another few minutes of me time. But yeah, it feels like I'm always having to choose between sleep, exercise, hygiene, etc. Life. Good luck.

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  10. Amber - my hairdresser told me that totally straight is now 'out' for the more fashionable natural wave look. Sounds like a blessing for both you and me. My hair is wavy enough but not so curly that it just looks messy when not coiffed.

    PS - glad to see you writing so much even if I don't have time to swing by regularly.

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  11. Ahh you are just trying to sell me a scam product. (Just kidding.) 10 minutes eh? That sounds like something even I, the laziest person around, could do.

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  12. Ooo That's a GREAT idea! I wonder if my hubs would be on board... haha

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  13. You've seen how curly my hair is right? I'm not sure if my routine would work for your hair, but this is how I keep hair low/no maintenance:
    **I have to splurge on products that work (for me, Paul Mitchell or DevaCurl) and I do an olive oil hair conditioning treatment every other week (no frizz, so soft and manageable!)

    I shower at night if at all possible, a few hours before bed. My hair takes forever to dry, so it is still damp when I am ready for bed. I only use lubriderm or curel non-scented lotion on my hair. I twist my hair into numerous braids. When I wake up in the morning, I just pull out the braids, spritz with finishing spray, and pin accordingly.

    If I can't shower at night, I will spray my hair with a water bottle and use a little more finishing spray or a spray gel, then style (usually in a librarian bun with curly tendrils artfully arrayed. - I hope.)

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  14. This is so me.



    Steph

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  15. i gave up on my hair long ago, calling my air-dried hippie tangled waves a style;) i hear ya on this one.

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  16. Because I get up at 5:00 and I'm out the door at 6:00, I rarely do my hair. It gets washed, every morning, and quick blow dry. That's it. And I'm good with it. I gave up beauty when my kids were born. Last year I went short...BEST DECISION of my life. :-)

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  17. You are MY kind of girl, that's for sure. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm one of the ladies who choose hair over health. But I only take 5-10 minutes to dry my (short-ish) hair so if I were to replace it with exercise, 5-10 minutes won't cut it. At least not if I have to wake up for it. And honestly, I can hardly fathom waking up early just to exercise. It's a miracle I'm even up for work.

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  18. Perfect! I am SO not a morning person...but when I read that exercise in the morning does MORE for you than evening exercise..I think..."Hey! I'll do it in the morning!" but I'm one of those red-faced overheaters ya know? So then I think..."I'll be all sweaty and overheated and red faced and then have to go to work?" YUCK! but honestly....by evening time...i think...."Morning exercise is better for you" lol :)

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  19. I can totally relate, and I'm not even a mom yet! Working, keeping a clean house, being 9 months pregnant and running a website take up all of my time. Who has time to exercise? I rarely do my hair these days, unless you count a ponytail as a hairstyle. I should really just chop it all off.

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  20. A very funny take on this whole subject! I hope you can find time for both. ;)

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  21. Lately, I haven't been doing either. I'm so bad!

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  22. I know I'm a complete lunatic, because I actually shower, fix my hair and go to my exercise class each morning (except Saturday) fully made up. I don't have time in my 4-hour day (between the end of class and my son coming home) to get home and take a shower, so once I go to class that's it - I'm out for the day. I sweat but I don't notice that I'm such a big "head sweater." Either way it doesn't ruin my hair, or not enough to be a deal breaker. And, you might have read this before on my blog, Amber, but I have big time problem hair! Fuzzy, frizzy, crazy Jewish hair, so taming it is a big deal!

    But nothing makes me feel as happy as my Jazzercise makes me feel so that's non-negotiable!

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